Not sure what to do.. please HELP!

[Anonymous]

Please help..we dont know what to do but my fiance has great credit...except that his dads mortgage and home equity line of credit are on his credit report.  His dad thought he was doing him a favor by having him put on his mortgage when he was 18 to help him build credit, then a couple of years ago he added him to his home equity.  We found out that his step mom had him do it because his dad couldnt get the equity loan himself so thats the real reason they had him put on it well now it is killing his credit since we bought a house and he has 2 mortgages and a home equity line of credit and nobody will lend to him because it shows he only has 2% of his income left (im not sure of the terms yet for the debt to income) but it pretty much says he is spent and has no money to get anything.  

 We were told that his dad would have to refi on his house to get him off but his step mom has killed his dads credit with cc and loans that are not paid  and now we dont know what to do seeing as how nobody will probaby do a refi for his dad.  Does anyone know what we can do to get him off the mortgage and home equity loan?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Hi and welcome to the forums.

If he is on the mortgage, and he signed the paperwork, then unfortunately he is just as responsible as his dad.

And it is correct that his dad would need to refinance in his name alone to get the son off.

I don't know any other way.  Some one else might be able to come up with something.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for trying to help, im just hoping someone here will have an idea as to what we can do...its just hurting us badly since we need to finance a wood burner for our home this fall for heat this winter and there is no way they will give him credit for it.  it says he is at a 90 some percent dti so its really hard...even our credit union said that he either has to sell his motorcycle ( which he loves) or get off of those mortgage/loc..hopefully we can get something done.

[Lel]

In rare instances a person can be removed from a mortgage note through a process called novation.  However, it requires that the remaining borrowers on the mortgage have the ability to pay the loan and have a fairly stellar credit history.  Your fiance's father does not seem to fit this picture at all.

One thing I don't quite understand  - your message sounds like that your fiance was an unwitting party to these financial transactions.  There's no way for someone to be put on a mortgage or "added" to a HELOC without his or her explicit agreement.  If he's on the mortgage or HELOC, then he must have signed the papers agreeing to be on it.  These forms almost always notarized (they always have been for me), so it's virtually impossible to be put on a mortgage note without one's knowledge.  At least that's my understanding of the process.

If, somehow, your fiance really had no knowledge of these transactions, and never signed any paper agreeing to be either on the mortgage or the HELOC, then something is amiss.  A crime may have been committed by his father and/or stepmother.  Your fiance needs to figure out what exactly happened.

[Jazzzy]

Hi tracilee and welcome to the forums.

I can see how frustrating this is for you. It's not fair, but the loans are your fiancee's as much as they are his father's. Your greater fear needs to be what can happen if his father quits paying. The banks will come after your fiancee for the payments. Hopefully that won't happen. Hopefully his father won't start making late payments because those late payments will show up on your fiancee's credit reports as well. I don't mean to worry you or make a bad situation worse, but those things are things that could happen. You need to understand that.

If his father has been steadily paying these loans, would a credit union accept proof that your fiancee hasn't ever had to pay on the loans? I think it would be rare that they would make a loan based on that proof, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Bottom line is that his father either needs to get these loans refinanced (which is more difficult now than ever) or move and sell the property. This could be a long 20-30 years for you if they stay in that house and don't refinance.